Chapter 260： Go south with the ship

成功 After successful sea trials, Marin began to arrange artillery installation problems. After all, the sea at this time is still more dangerous. Equipped with artillery is also a guarantee of safety.

This time, Marin had more artillery. Because for more than two years, John and his relatives and disciples have not stopped casting 12-pound cast iron cannons. Therefore, in addition to equipping dozens of 12-pound cast iron guns from Texelencher and Oderschild in Texel, Emden is also equipped with a dozen or more for shore defense. Even so, 55 12-pound cast iron cannons were stored in the warehouse. Moreover, although the old John ’s casting gun work was suspended because of the need to change the casting of the three-pound bronze gun, the craftsman of the clay mold did not stop making the clay mold of the 12-pound iron gun. In other words, when Old John is free, as long as there are enough air-dried mud molds, he can continue to cast 12-pound cast iron cannons.

Marin removed all the cast-iron cannons in the warehouse and began to place artillery on the ship. However, Portuguese designers used to design merchant ships, so the design of artillery positions on board was very unreasonable. For both ships, only the stern and bow can be fitted with artillery. Moreover, when they were designed, they were prepared to place those small-calibre bronze guns. Big guys like 12-pound cast iron guns failed to put a few in the end ...

In the end, every effort was made to equip each ship with 16 artillery pieces. Among them, there are 4 doors on the bow and 12 doors on the tower ... The original Portuguese designer's plan was to place 40 "Frontier" small-calibre bronze guns.

But Marin knew that the "Fran machine" was equipped with a small-caliber bronze cannon. That thing could only be used to kill people on the deck of the enemy ship, and it would not sink the other ship. Therefore, on the ship, Marin did not use a bronze gun. All 12-pound cast iron guns were used.

However, the cast-iron cannon cast by Old John was obviously a 12-pound class, but it weighed 18 pounds and weighed 2 tons per door. In those cases, the rear mounted bronze guns weighed only a few hundred pounds per door.

However, although the number of artillery is small, the power is not reduced at all. Because a 12-pound iron ball is more powerful than a bronze gun's 3-pound and 6-pound iron ball.

Also, those bronze guns were leaking because they were rear mounted. In terms of range and power, it is not comparable to Marin's 12-pound cast iron cannon.

After Lu'an had a good artillery, the two ships went out to the sea to try, and found that the effect was very good, and there was no swaying of the hull due to firing. After all, the length-to-width ratio of the hull is only 3.5 to 1, which is much wider and more stable than those 4 to 1. Moreover, there are very few artillery on board. Even with a volley, the recoil force is not so great.

However, the investment of these large-caliber cast iron guns makes Marin have to face a new problem-that is, gunpowder is not enough!

A 12-pound cast iron cannon is charged with three or four pounds of gunpowder each time it is fired. Dozens of doors are used together, gunpowder flows in a hurry ...

What's more, after Marin formed a 10,000 regular army, there were almost 2,500 musketeers alone. With 2,500 muskets used together, the amount of fire medicine is not mentioned, and the consumption of lead blocks is also huge.

Demand determines the market supply. Others do not popularize the use of muskets, although Marin has taken the lead. But at the same time, because guns are not popular, the market supply of gunpowder is also small. The main thing is that the saltpeter supply is very small. There is no saltpeter ore in Europe. In this era, Europeans wanted to obtain saltpeter and only looked for it from that pit.

However, because gunpowder is currently not widely used, fewer people are looking for saltpeter from Maokeng. Therefore, the supply of gunpowder on the market is very limited. In order to maintain the needs of the previous 5000 army, Marin has wiped out gunpowder reserves in several nearby countries and regions, but it is not enough.

Because Marin has high requirements for the training of musketeers, he often fires live fire drills. Therefore, the daily consumption of gunpowder is very large.

Moreover, the number of musketeers now reaches 2,500, and three bronze three-pound guns will be launched. The amount of gunpowder used in ordinary training is also very scary.

Therefore, Marin urgently needs a lot of gunpowder or saltpeter. And in Northwest Europe, Marin can't buy much. The gunpowder available in northern Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands was basically bought out by Marin. Although the French gunpowder is sufficient, there are many artillery and the amount of artillery is very large. In addition, Marin and France have never been good relations, so Marin is unlikely to go to France to buy gunpowder.

Well, Marin thought about it, and only Spain had enough gunpowder ...

In fact, the Spanish army has also begun to try to equip local Muskhet muskets. By 1503, Gonzalo de Cordoba was able to allow the Spanish army to use muskets on a large scale, and it was by no means all of a sudden that there were so many rifles. It can be seen that before this, Spanish muskets should also be more popular. The popularity of muskets inevitably requires the production of matching powder and lead shots. Therefore, Marin estimated that there should be a lot of gunpowder available in Spain.

Not only that, but in southern Europe such as Spain and Italy, it seems that there is no shortage of lead mines. The use of muskets consumes more lead than gunpowder. Therefore, Marin planned to send these two ships to southern Europe to buy gunpowder and lead blocks.

最后 But in the end, after thinking about it, Marin decided-just go south with the boat and go directly to Spain ...

Because he wants to talk to the King of Spain about the problem of dumping the pot. Right now, Marin has provoked a strong enemy on land like Saxony, and that's it. After all, although Saxony is strong, Marin is not afraid.

But it would n’t be good if it would provoke a maritime enemy like Portugal. Intrigued by Saxon, Marin kicked it back with confidence. But he got Portugal, but Marin had no confidence. Because the forces at sea need enough warships and artillery. Maybe Marin can defeat the Portuguese at sea in the future, but at present, Marin is unable to fight the Portuguese at sea. After all, the Portuguese have been at sea for decades, since Prince Enrique's great voyage. And Marin is just starting out. In the face of Portugal, it is all about babies facing strong men. More importantly, Marin now relies heavily on maritime trade. Even if the Portuguese couldn't break into Orich and could not hurt Marin, if Portugal blocked the waters of Marin's territory and prevented his salt ship from going out, it would kill Marin ~ www.novelhall.com ~ The reason why Marin lived so smartly and engaged in this and that is purely supported by strong economic forces. But if the Portuguese blocked the sea, his economic system would collapse. At that time, he could not afford his army, and powerful enemies such as Saxony would come over and he could easily clean him up.

So Marin needs to be low-key now. To this end, he resolutely chose to surrender the huge profits of the Indian route to Spain. But at the same time, throw the pot to Spain and let Spain and Portugal bite each other.

The Spaniard, even if he knows that Marin wants to dump the pot, it is difficult to not kneel before the perverted super profits.

Spain may not be Portugal's opponent at sea, but what? Who calls Portugal next to Spain? Moreover, in terms of land power, Portugal is too far behind Spain.

If you ca n’t beat Portugal at sea, that ’s no problem. Spain can rely on it, and send its army to Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, to surround it and force Portugal to bow its head. What's wrong with you at sea? My hometown is right in front of me, and you can send troops to end your old nest at any time ...

Spain is here, and Portugal still has trouble finding Marin? Faced with a more powerful Spain, Portugal must be struggling to cope with it, and busy with Spain, there is no time to do anything else.

I happen to be, this time the recruitment is basically completed. All recruits were organized into teams and had their own instructors. Schwartz's training capabilities are already very good. Therefore, Marin can safely leave for Spain.

Besides, when Marin went to Spain this time, he still had the heavy task of purchasing gunpowder and lead. If they were to receive Columbus's fleet, Columbus might bring enough saltpeter. Then Marin was no shortage of gunpowder. After all, there are two things, charcoal and sulfur, in Europe ...